Running Google Sketchup on MBA

[slowbutspeeding]

I am a proud owner of an Air, as it has met all of my expectations over the last few months of ownership.

However, I just booted up Google Sketchup to do some 3D modeling and was sorely disappointed. After a few minutes, it becomes nearly impossible to do anything as even the simplest command such as Move, makes the little color spinning wheel appear and things are delayed. I checked the fan speed, and it was running normal (~2700 rpm), so I don't think the processors were overheating. However, I tried restarting both the program and my MBA, as well as trying to model simple shapes and still had the same results.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced these issues, or if others would be willing to try it out on their MBA to see if they get similar results. You can download the program for free here.

This is very frustrating as I used to run Sketchup on my old iBook G4 without any problems!

 

[(((k)))]

Same issues here. Try turning off fast feedback in sketchup preferences under the open GL category. Seems to have made things much better for me.

 

[aussieinrome]

Try not using Google spyware at all.

 

[DaveOZ]

It's not the Air specifically, SketchUp on Leopard is rubbish. Same thing on my Air, MBPro and my wife's MB. For a laugh I installed sketchup on my Air under VMWare XP. It flys!. What a joke. Sort it out Google!

BTW, Sketchup Pro is worse. Hangs on launch.

 

[aussieinrome]

It's not the Air specifically, SketchUp on Leopard is rubbish. Same thing on my Air, MBPro and my wife's MB. For a laugh I installed sketchup on my Air under VMWare XP. It flys!. What a joke. Sort it out Google!

BTW, Sketchup Pro is worse. Hangs on launch.

From the sounds of it, if you install MS Office under VMWare or Parallels it runs faster too. Hahaha...

Maybe Google and Microsoft are working together...

 

[slowbutspeeding]

Same issues here. Try turning off fast feedback in sketchup preferences under the open GL category. Seems to have made things much better for me.

This made all the difference in the world...thanks!

It's not the Air specifically, SketchUp on Leopard is rubbish. Same thing on my Air, MBPro and my wife's MB.

I found this to not be true, as it seemed to fly on my old MBP. I'm guessing Google just has to figure out how to tweak it for the integrated graphics card. I have a *ell laptop at work that is spec'd the same as my Air and Sketcup is smooth as butter...go figure. Google needs to hurry up though, as I refuse to install Windows on this beautiful work of art

 

[Sesshi]

Sketchup will not exactly fly on a GMA. It boils down to that really, pretty simple.

I've taken to using it as a 'lets see' sketchbook sometimes but not often - as I prefer standing behind other people telling them what to draw - on my SZ* and on recent previous machines with low-mid-end Geforce cards. I wouldn't really consider the Air a suitable machine to Sketchup on.

* Genuine 5+ hour (GMA) / 3+ hour (Geforce) removable battery life on a Penryn 2.5, full complement of connectivity and just two iPods heavier than the Air